


It's Warmer In the Basement

by i_amthecosmos



Category: Adam Lambert (Musician), My Chemical Romance
Genre: Adam in Jersey, Alternate Universe - High School, Friendship, Frottage, Kissing, M/M, Obligatory 'Basement' reference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-25 14:05:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7535692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_amthecosmos/pseuds/i_amthecosmos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adam gets moved to New Jersey and doesn't have one single friend-until he does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Warmer In the Basement

**Author's Note:**

> I'm in a mood and transferring some of my old fics. This one still delights me. Adam and Gerard, two of my favorite people to write, together.

Adam was having a hard time adjusting to New Jersey, and as far as he could tell, Jersey wasn’t all that happy about him being there either. He didn’t have any time to adjust-three months ago they were still in San Diego, and then they had moved entirely across the country. His mom had tried to put a good face on it, saying that they were close to New York and they could see Broadway shows and still take acting classes, but it was hollow. His dad was still in California, for one thing, and for another, he was in a scary, shitty, cold town with a total pit for a high school. And everyone here looked mean.

Adam didn’t realize that he’d strayed into the path of someone else in the hallway until he was bumped right up against this short little guy with dark hair. “Watch it,” the kid said, but it was flat, no malice in it. It was the accent that made it sound mean, he understood suddenly. The other boy looked at him, and Adam saw brownish-hazel eyes in a round, unsmiling face. “Your tall ass better not run me over,” the guy said, and again it just sounded like what he thought he was supposed to say. He said it like he expected to get shoved.

Adam smiled at him instead, and watched the other boy frown. “I’m sorry. Hi, I’m Adam, I just moved here.” Adam kept smiling, but it was a struggle to keep it up as the boy just stared at him like he was an alien. He didn’t stop staring after the bell rang either. Finally, he slumped off towards class, his parting shot said without so much a glance over his shoulder.

“Yeah, I can fucking tell you’re not from here.”

Adam went through the rest of the day without talking to anyone. It was official, nobody at this school wanted to talk to him. He left class late-he’d stayed behind to help the choir teacher put her things up-and now the buses had already run. Adam slung his backpack over his shoulder and started walking towards their new rented house. It was ugly and weather beaten and seemed to be a third of the size of the one they’d had in San Diego, back when his father was still living with them and not a voice on the phone. Adam wished the last three months had never happened and he was back somewhere warm and sane, with his whole family. As he trudge through the cold (and fuck, it was cold for April), he didn’t notice the car until it screeched to a stop right next to him.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, man?” Adam looked over and in a tiny, shitty silver car, there was the guy from earlier that day, staring him down. “Are you really walking home on this fucking street by yourself?” Adam didn’t know what to say, but then he looked up and-yeah, maybe he really didn’t want to walk through that knot of people who were taking up the whole corner. He looked back and the dark haired kid had shoved the passenger door open. “Just get in.” Adam didn’t argue with him, and the guy nodded and screeched away from the corner as soon as Adam had the door closed.

After a minute, Adam said “Um hey, thanks. What’s your name?” He felt kind of uncomfortable-the heat was on really high, and the car smelt like rum, vomit and the cigarette that Gerard had stuck in his mouth. “Um, and I live on Carson Street.” The guy jammed a tape into the cassette player-the car didn’t even have a CD-and looked over at him.

“I’m Garry,” he said. “Or Gerard, but the family calls me Garry. You can use either fuckin’ one I guess. And I’m not taking you to Carson, I’m almost outta gas.” Adam almost said something and Gerard cut him off with a wave of his cigarette. “Just come to my house. You can call your mom. What time does she get off work?”

“Um, it kind of depends,” Adam said softly. His mom was trying to get her real estate license and was working full time for an interior decorator until then. Sometimes it was eight pm before she came home. Gerard blew out a lungful of nasty-smelling smoke and nodded.

“Come on. We can make pizzas. My mom-she won’t be home until late either.” Adam looked over at him, wanting to say Thank you for the first kind-of friendly gesture anyone had given him since he got here. Gerard wasn’t looking at him though, but instead he rolled through a stop sign and then turned left. “And when we get home, I’m gonna teach you which roads to avoid, okay? Don’t fucking get mugged, new kid.”

Adam thought that was the nicest thing anyone had said to him.

When they reached the house, he wasn’t surprised by the outside of it. It looked like all the others-old and with flaking paint. The inside of the house though-that was pretty surprising. All the windows were covered with heavy curtains, and Adam swore he saw a fucking bat embalmed in plastic in one of the rooms. Gerard didn’t say anything as he got two tiny store brand ninety nine cent pizzas out of the freezer and threw them on a tray. “You want Diet Coke or Kool-Aid?” he said, still not looking at Adam.

“Diet Coke,” Adam said, looking around. “Um…your house is pretty interesting.” Gerard jerked his head to face him, looking wary. “Um no, I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s just…I’ve never seen much like it.” Gerard looked around and nodded as he turned on the stove and stuck the pizzas inside, slamming the oven door.

“I guess so. My family’s pretty weird. Oh hey, my little brother is probably home by now. Just so you know. And I gotta say hi to my grandma.” Gerard handed Adam three Diet Cokes. “Take these down to the basement, I’m gonna see how she’s doing.” Gerard didn’t waste a minute going to a back room, leaving Adam there holding the Cokes. From a distance, he heard a happier, more animated Gerard telling someone how his day had been. Adam tip-toed down the narrow basement stairs as he listened to Gerard lie about his good day at school.

The basement was even darker. There was one tiny ray of sun peeking through, and there were a few rooms down there-it was more like an apartment. He was looking for Gerard’s room when a voice said “Hey. In here.” Adam followed it and saw a skinny boy about Neil’s age with glasses sitting on the edge of a single bed pushed into a tiny corner. There was another bed on the other side, and a writing desk that was covered in papers. Adam glanced at once of them and the kid said “Garry doesn’t want you looking at his comics until he’s done. Except for me.” Adam could hear the pride there. “I’m Mikey.”

“Hi, I’m Adam. I think your brother saved me from a mugging,” Adam said and the kid snort-laughed for a full minute. Adam was laughing too after a while, and when Gerard got downstairs with the pizza, he saw them going over a comic book together while sitting on Mikey’s bed. Gerard didn’t say anything but just started handing them paper towels with greasy squares of pizza on them. Then he sat at his writing desk, and began drawing something, his arm flung around at an angle to keep Adam from seeing what it was. Adam looked over at Mikey, who just shrugged.

After an hour, Gerard looked up, blinking at him in the dim light. “Hey, did you call your mom? Go tell her you’re over here. Maybe she can pick you up or my mom can drop you off when she finally gets home.” Adam blinked and Gerard just stared at him. “Phone’s upstairs, man. Hey, where did you move from?”

Adam hesitated, because it was still hard to think about. “San Diego,” he said, and in those words he could hear how much he missed the beach, the sun, and his life there with the theater and acting programs. That was all gone now.

“California,” Gerard said, a sneer in his voice, but Adam didn’t take it personally. Then Gerard looked over at Adam with a small smile on his face. “Yeah, you are a blond California boy. I bet you fuckin’ hate it here.” Adam looked at him and thought Well, not as much as yesterday.

Instead he said “It’s cold,” and walked up the stairs to the sound of both Gerard and Mikey laughing.

Soon after that, Adam started spending more time at the Way house after school than his own. His mom was worried about Neil being left home alone, but she was happy that Adam had someone to hang out with. So Neil went into an after school accelerated learning program and Adam spent a lot of time in a dark basement. He learned a lot about comic books and Iron Maiden, as Gerard talked about his favorite comics and Mikey just nodded along, a quiet but constant presence.

(“Why do you spend so much time with your little brother?” Adam made the mistake of asking early on. Gerard just stared at him like he was an idiot while Adam tried to explain that he couldn’t handle being around Neil for much time at all, and it just seemed normal for siblings to hate each other. When he stammered to an end, Gerard looked sorry for him.)

Gerard didn’t talk a whole lot at school, but when he got started on comics or something he couldn’t stop, hands waving as he described how lame the latest Joker character arc was. He loved comics and he loved drawing them, but he still wouldn’t show it to Adam. One day, after Gerard had crumbled up his fifth page in a row and thrown it across the room, he looked at Adam and said. “Maybe I should’ve stuck to singing. You like that, right?” Gerard looked defensive, and Adam didn’t know why at first. Then he remembered Mikey saying something about Gerard singing in school as a kid and he turned bright red.

After a minute he said “Yeah, I love it. When I was in San Diego, I took opera lessons.” He never admitted that to anyone, quickly figuring out that at this school that would be a good reason for an automatic beating. But Gerard just lit up, smiling in a way that changed his entire face, and Adam wound up telling him all about how he went to voice lessons and acted in kid’s theater. “I miss it”, he said finally. “We can’t really afford lessons now. My dad…he says he’s gonna send more money when the house gets sold.” That made Gerard look a lot more serious.

“Why…why the fuck did your mom move you this far? I see my dad all the time. I mean, I’m not trying to be an asshole, but that wasn’t fair to you and your brother, man.” Adam sighed and scooted over on Mikey’s bed, closer to Gerard’s desk chair.

“I think she wanted to start over,” he said quietly. “And she had family here.” Adam didn’t say that she was so angry about his father’s girlfriend that she probably moved to the other side of the fucking country just to get away from them. Adam looked at his hands for a while. “I kinda hate it, I miss what my life was. I knew they were gonna break up, but I just want to be home.”

“You should,” Gerard said, and when Adam looked up, he could see the angry glint in his eyes. “I don’t understand why you aren’t pissed. You never say that you’re mad. You got your entire fucking life turned upside down for no reason.” Gerard stood up, taller than Adam for once. “I’m gonna get us some cokes, and I’ve got some whiskey. Call your mom and ask if you can stay the night. We’re gonna get drunk.” Gerard paused right before he turned to go upstairs. “Hey man…maybe we can dye your hair. My mom’s a fuckin’ hair stylist, we’ve got all kinds of colors. You’d look good with black hair.” He turned away then. “It suits this fucking state better than that strawberry blond.”

Adam watched Gerard go upstairs, then he laid back down on Mikey’s bed. He didn’t want to cry, or mess up Mikey’s sheets, but he did anyway. When Mikey came back downstairs before Gerard, he just handed Adam a Kleenex and sat beside him as he wiped his eyes.

When Gerard came back downstairs with the Cokes, he didn’t say anything. Adam wondered if he could even see Adam’s red eyes in the dark of the basement. He tossed Adam a package of hair dye, and he looked at it, then put it aside. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to show up at his mom’s house with black hair, like another Way brother. Gerard nodded. “Maybe later.”

Adam called his mom when he trusted himself to sound like he hadn’t been crying. “Mom? Gerard asked me to stay over. We’re gonna watch movies and stuff.” His mom paused, and Adam fidgeted, waiting for her to ask if there was anything going on between him and Gerard. There wasn’t, but that didn’t stop Adam from wishing for it.

“Okay Adam, have fun,” she finally said. “And be careful honey.” Adam thanked her and almost missed the last part. He tried not to think about it when he went back downstairs and Gerard was already in his Star Wars pajamas, pouring whiskey into 7-11 Big Gulp cups. When Gerard saw him, he just handed Adam one of the cups and a Coke without saying anything. Adam poured his Coke in and started sipping it while Gerard looked for a horror movie.

(Adam still didn’t like horror movies all that much-he had no idea why Gerard and Mikey were hell-bent on scaring the shit out of themselves every chance they got, but hey. It was something to watch.)

Adam was in the middle of watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre before he realized something was off. “Hey, where’s Mikey?” The basement without Mikey in it was like a room that had been haunted by a benevolent ghost that some asshole paranormal expert had gotten rid of. Adam shook his head at that-he’d been spending way too much time with these guys.

“Mikey’s staying at our cousin’s house, he left out the basement door when you were upstairs.” Gerard said. “Just you and me tonight.” Gerard took another long swig of his 7-11 cocktail and then poured more Evan Williams in it. Adam watched as Gerard winced from the burn. “It’s cool, right?” And then Gerard stared right at him.

Adam did not dare to hope. He was in high school goddammit, and he was an obviously gay theater fairy who didn’t fit in anywhere at this school-god, there were hardly even any girls to hang around with. But…Gerard had a secret love for musicals and theatrics, and he had shown Adam an awesome movie called Phantom of the Paradise and encouraged Adam to sing some of the songs. He watched Cabaret with his grandma and Adam had never seen him with a girl…somewhere during this train of thought he leaned in and kissed Gerard’s mouth.

It tasted kind of bad-Gerard hadn’t brushed his teeth, and it was sweet/sour with cheap whiskey and Coke. Gerard didn’t push him off, and he even leaned closer. So Adam did it again, still gentle. He kept waiting for his friend to push him off and say What the fuck, Lambert. But it didn’t happen. When Gerard moved, it was to put his cup on the floor and then he was back leaning against Adam, his unwashed hair against Adam’s nose.

“Um,” Adam said, because he didn’t know what to do, he felt so ugly and awkward and he never thought any guy would like him. Gerard didn’t give him any clues either, he just stayed in place curled up on Adam’s shoulder. He was seriously starting to wonder if Gerard just wanted to use him as a pillow.

“You could put the fuckin’ cup down,” Gerard said, and Adam couldn’t help the giggle that escaped from his mouth. He could hear Gerard giggle too, and it was so fucking adorable coming from him that Adam nearly knocked his goddamn cup over setting it on the floor. Gerard was lying down then, and Adam just looked at him for a minute.

Gerard wasn’t beautiful, not really. He was fat as well, not as big as Adam but with an impressive potbelly and a round face. He didn’t shower much and he always smelled like stale cigarettes. But he had beautiful eyes and a cute pointy chin, and when Adam laid down next to him, body pressed close, it felt like a good match.

They kissed lazily for a long time. Gerard didn’t seem in much of a hurry, and Adam wanted to enjoy this before something stupid happened and it all came crashing down. He slowly moved until he was over Gerard’s body, and that made him giggle again. When Adam paused, Gerard smiled up at him. “I’m sorry man. It’s just weird. I can feel your cock.” Adam blushed so red he bet he was glowing in the near dark of the room when Gerard continued. “It’s huge, it’s like a baseball bat or something. Um, don’t try to fuck me, because I’ve never done that shit before.”

When Adam could talk again-because he hadn’t even considered that to be a possibility-he said “Um. I don’t know what I’m doing really. I’ve never done anything.” He swallowed the lump in his throat and then looked at Gerard. “What about you?”

“I haven’t done shit with guys,” Gerard said, and Adam's heart sank a little. “I had a girlfriend, but it was like this-we just made out.” Gerard started to move then and Adam had to get out of the way before he got an elbow in the ribs.“Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this. I…fuck Adam, I don’t know what I am. Maybe I’m being a cocktease.” Adam listened as Gerard kept going, talking about how he wasn’t sure if he liked guys or girls and he liked Adam a lot as a friend but maybe this wasn’t the right thing to do. “But…you’re gay aren’t you? I shouldn’t have started something like this. Fuck. I just wanted us to have fun, you know?”

Adam felt himself withdraw then. If Gerard wasn’t sure…”Maybe I should go,” he said. “Maybe this was a bad idea. I don’t want you…you might regret it later if we do more.” Inwardly Adam was seething, because he had gotten so close-someone had let him get that close, and then it was just over. Adam tried to get up, stumbling through the dark room and knocking one of the cups over. “Sorry. I’ll um, call my mom.” He grabbed at his clothes and headed for the stairs, not looking as Gerard tried to call him back. He sat upstairs until his mom got there. Gerard didn’t come up, but Adam could hear him turn off the movie. The silence seemed worse, like maybe Gerard had just turned over and fallen asleep, forgetting all about him.

His mom just looked sympathetic when he got into the car, seemingly not bothered by having to get up at 2am to pick up her drunk son. She just patted his knee when Adam tried to pretend he wasn’t crying. “Did he…are you okay, Adam? You’re not hurt, are you?” His mom said when they stopped at a light. Adam shook his head.

“No mom. I’m not hurt. I’m okay, it was just…” He couldn’t finish the sentence, because he didn’t know how to describe it. “I’ll be fine,” he said, and that sounded so false to his ears that he couldn’t stand it. “I wish we never came here,” he said suddenly, the booze finally breaking past the part of him that never wanted to upset his mom. “I hate it here, mom.” He felt it then, the thing that Gerard just couldn’t understand. Why don’t you ever get angry? Well, now he was. “I don’t-there’s nothing here for me. And I know you said we were right next to New York and Broadway, but we never go to Broadway. We don’t have any money.” He was crying then, full on. “Fuck. I’m sorry mom, but...fuck. I hate it.”

His mom couldn’t look at him as they drove up their driveway, but he could see the tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry too, kid,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking, and now I’ve done something that I can’t fix right away. I hope you forgive me.” She looked at him then, sniffling a little. “I love you, kid. If nothing else, I’ll find the money for you to get lessons again. But…I’m really sorry.” Adam nodded and squeezed her hand, then he went inside and straight to his room. He had gotten about half his clothes off before he slumped on the bed and passed out. In his dreams, Gerard was there, smiling over a secret drawing.

When Adam woke up the next morning he swore he could feel the sunlight piercing his skull and making it come apart at the lobes. His head throbbed, and he moved slowly to see the puke bucket and glass of water his mom had left him. There was a note too, but Adam didn’t bother to read it. He knew she had real estate class on Saturdays. He got up and pulled his bathrobe over his clothes-it was so cold inside. He made himself go downstairs and get more water. He couldn’t stand to think of anything more. He was on his third glass when the doorbell made him nearly drop the fucking thing. Goddammit, it was so loud to his pounding head.

When he got to the door, he arrived just in time to see a silver car speed off. He watched it for a while, and took a step forward, as if he could catch up to it. His foot nearly landed on the big mailing envelope left on the porch. Adam took it with shaking hands, wondering what the hell it said.

When he opened it, he stared for a long time. There was a drawing of himself onstage in show choir, in a horrible tux and gloves, but Gerard made him glow. It made him think of all the times Gerard heard him sing at school. Gerard would smile through the performances, forgetting all about the fuck-off expression he wore to school. The next one was a drawing of him, Gerard and Mikey . They were shadows in a dark room, but Adam could make them out.

The last one was a drawing of Frankenstein, or as Gerard always insisted, Frankenstein’s monster. It was a good version of the movie monster, and Gerard got so caught up looking at it he nearly missed the signature.

In script, near the bottom, was one word. Friend?

Adam pushed the papers aside for a second and had to wipe his eyes. He wasn’t surprised when he got a call a few minutes later. “Hey Gerard.”

“Yeah, hi,” Gerard said. “Um, so. I’m really sorry. Did you…is everything okay?” Adam heard Gerard take a breath and he knew that he was probably going to ramble about how stupid he’d been or something, so Adam just cut him off.

“Friend,” he said. “Yeah. Definitely friend, okay Gee?”

Gerard’s musical little giggle hurt his temples, but it made him smile.


End file.
